Gladwins Ltd currently owns seven sites in the east of England, employing more than 200 staff and repairing cars and commercial vehicles for all major insurance companies

Gladwin’s managing director Harvey Death said: “We are delighted with the conclusion of the purchase, we have been working hard with our partners Aviva to ensure a smooth transition of the site into the Gladwins Group and we are looking forward to working with the existing highly-skilled staff in such a well-equipped, Kitemarked approved facility.

“Opening a site in Norwich has been in our long-term business plan and is part of the continued strategic growth of the company.

“With eight sites this strengthens our offering within East Anglia to our insurance partners,” he explained.

“Gladwins’ new Norwich site will improve the level of service to our current customers in the Norwich and north Norfolk areas”

Alex Caldwell, director of supply chain at Aviva and managing director of Solus, said: “We are also delighted to have agreed the sale of the Solus centre in Norwich to Gladwins, which will continue to employ the 22 staff at the site.

“We look forward to continuing to work with Gladwins and the staff at the Whiffler Road site who I know will maintain the level of service our Aviva customers have been used to.”

Aviva will extend the current Motor Repairer Partnership (MRP) with Gladwins to support its customers in the Norfolk area.

The Norwich site will continue to support Aviva employees with discounted preferential rates.

Aviva and Solus thanked the staff of Solus Norwich for all of their hard work and support shown over the years and wish Gladwins Body Repair Centres every success with this latest acquisition.